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American Folk-Hymn Settings, Op 231

Recordings

'As we have come to expect from Christopher Herrick and Hyperion everything is done to the highest standard. The varied and exciting programme is conv ...'Christopher Herrick is his usual inimitable self, combing a sense of fun with a spontaneous grandeur which is at times, totally arresting. The listen ...» More

Details

Jean Langlais (1907–1991), like César Franck, was Organist of Ste-Clotilde, Paris, and much of his vast output, as one might expect of a Roman Catholic organist, is based on Gregorian melodies. His six American Folk-Hymn Settings, Op 231, are an unusual exception, and Battle Hymn of the Republic is marked Tempo di marcia. The opening is hesitant and sinister-sounding, but Langlais soon builds up to Full Organ, and there then follows an extemporization on certain features of the familiar melody. Only at the end, after the ‘sinister’ music is heard again, does the melody appear in its entirety, sounding triumphantly above the composer’s characteristically abrasive harmonies.